Helen Bailey’s ‘killer stood to be “primary” heir of her £3million fortune’
THE man accused of murdering children's author Helen Bailey stood to inherit her multi-million pound estate after his fiancee's death, a court has heard.
Ian Stewart was in line to gain two homes, enough cash to ensure a "very comfortable" lifestyle, and pension and life insurance payments from his fiancee.
But Stewart has been accused of slowly sedating the children's author before suffocating her and throwing her body, and that of her beloved pet dog Boris, into a cesspit full of human excrement.
Police have alleged the 56-year-old man then parked his car over the cover of the cesspit, distracting police from its existence, until they finally opened it three months after Ms Bailey had been reported missing.
At the time of her sudden disappearance in April last year, the author was said to have had assets worth £3,326,316.
He would have received almost £1 million more if she had died after they married, as was planned, in September, St Albans Crown Court heard.
Helen Bailey, the successful author of Electra Brown, owned three properties and had a total investment portfolio of an estimated value of £1,850,000, with savings of around £60,000, and £90,000 in a joint account with Stewart, jurors heard.
Stewart, of Royston, Hertfordshire, was also said to be the only beneficiary of about £235,000 in pensions and £1.28 million in life insurance, intended to cover inheritance tax.
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The court heard that in an email to Ms Bailey from the executor of her will, Anthony Hurley, said: "You specifically wish to ensure that Ian has your share of the main house and the second home in Broadstairs and a capital sum that will ensure he has a very comfortable lifestyle."
Mr Hurley and solicitor Amanda King-Jones, who oversaw the drawing up of the document in July 2014, said they took this as an indication of Ms Bailey's wishes.
Mr Hurley told the court that Ms Bailey told him: "The one thing I want to ensure is that Ian and the boys have security in this house. I don't want them to have to move, I want them to be secure in the house - how much money would that require?"
She had been worrying about how to divide her assets between loved ones and opted to leave it open-ended as a "temporary" measure, Mr Hurley said.
Ms King-Jones said: "That executor's role was to carry it (the will) out to ensure that Mr Stewart was primary, but there were other benefactors who needed to be factored into the estate.
"He would have immediate access as soon as possible of funds to ensure he could remain in the house and also, more long term, that he would have funds inherited to be able to live."
Stewart, who was out of work due to illness, already received around £2,000 a month in sickness pay and benefits, the court was told.
He had around £162,000 in his accounts, financial investigator Stephen Theedon said.
But Stewart's defence, Simon Russell Flint, argued that there was more in Stewart's account than in Ms Bailey's.
Stewart, who openly wept during the murder trial, has denied charges of murder, fraud, preventing a lawful burial and three counts of perverting the course of justice.
He also paid for the flyers and attended a dog walk as part of the search effort to find her during the three months she was missing.
The jury, who visited the Royston home during the murder trial, heard that Helen Bailey could still have been alive when she was allegedly dumped in the cesspit.
The court previously heard how Bailey herself had joked about the cesspit, telling her brother that it was a ";good place to hide a body".
The trial continues.
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